om Falmouth! The chance of running
in was tempting! Hesitating, uncertain, he took a step or two up and
down the poop, halting at turns to stare anxiously at the rocks, in the
wind's eye, at the great Atlantic combers welling up and lifting the
barque to leeward at every rise. On the skylight sat Mr. Williams,
smiling and clucking in his beard that "he did not know the Stags,
indeed!"

"We haul off, Pilot," said stout Old Jock, coming at a decision. "If
it had been daylight ... perhaps ... but I'm for takin' no risks. They
may be th' Stags, belike they are, but I'm no' goin' oan in weather
like this! We'll stand out t' th' norrard--'mainyards forrard,
Mister'--till daylight onyway!"

Sulkily we hauled the yards forward and trimmed sail, leaving the rocks
to fade under curtain of advancing night, our high hopes of making port
dismissed. The 'navigators' among us were loud of their growling, as
the ship lurched and wallowed in the trough of the sea, the decks
waist-high with a wash of icy water--a change from the steadiness and
comfort of a running ship.

Night fell black dark. The moon not risen to set a boundary to sea and
sky; no play of high light on the waste of heaving water; naught but
the long inky ridges, rolling out of the west, that, lifting giddily to
crest, sent us reeling into the windless trough. On the poop the Old
Man and Pilot tramped fore and aft, talking together of landfalls and
coasting affairs. As they came and went, snatches of their talk were
borne to us, the watch on deck--sheltering from the weather at the
break. The Old Man's "Aye, ayes," and "Goad, man's," and the voluble
Welshman's "iss, indeed, Capt'in," and "I tell 'oo's." The Pilot was
laying off a former course of action. "... Mister Williams, he said, I
can see that 'oo knows th' coast, he said, an' ... I 'oodn't go in
myself, he said; but if 'oo are sure----"

"_Brea--kers a-head!_"--a stunning period to his tale, came in a long
shout, a scream almost, from the look-out!

Both sprang to the lee rigging, handing their eyes to shield the wind
and spray. Faint as yet against the sombre monotone of sea and sky, a
long line of breaking water leapt to their gaze, then vanished, as the
staggering barque drove to the trough; again--again; there could be no
doubt. Breakers! On a lee shore!!

"_Mawdredd an'l_! O Christ! The Stags, Capt'in.... My God! My God!"
Wholly unmanned, muttering in Welsh and English, Mr. Williams